Vocal Range

Supported Range

Voice Type

Strengths/Achievements

Somewhat capable of keeping pitch and support in the fourth octave up until G#4

Used to be able to support notes up to Bb4 and occasionally C5

Decent pitch in her supported range when in good condition

Points for Improvement

Larynx is barely ever stable, raising easily in notes above G#4

Tends to be very nasal in placement and not really lift her soft palate

Falsetto is very unsupported and breathy, barely even comes out at times

Shallow support and control in her mix

Throat closes easily in her mix and even in her supported range at times

Any note below Bb3 is quiet, unstable and lacks support

Lacks breath control and breath support throughout most of her range

Very narrow supported range and overall range in general

Every register in her voice is rather underdeveloped

Not able to connect her lines smoothly with legato, without sounding clearly choppy

Registers

Lower register: Bom’s lower register can extend down to an D3/Eb3 very quietly and with some tone. Her range between D3 and Bb3 however is very unstable and lacks control of pitch and tone production, barely projecting most of the time

Mixed register: Her mixed register is very underdeveloped with a lot of straining and letting her throat close easily anywhere above G#4, which for any female voice type is considerably low. Her supported range lacks full connection and control in pitch and is often nasally placed

Upper register: Underused and underdeveloped. Most of the time Bom decides not to use falsetto unless a song requires her to, but when she does she tends to be very breathy and airy, lacking true connection between her vocal cords, letting the air come through and not allowing her to produce a full stable head voice.

Agility

Bom’s voice lacks a lot in terms of agility. It’s not a necessity in 2NE1’s music because their style is more electro-pop, however whenever she covers songs with R&B styling, her runs often lack connection, separation in pitch, accuracy of pitch and support. Her runs are often sloppy, pitchy and unsupported due to her inability to fully control her vocal cords to travel from one note to the next smoothly.

Overall analysis

Bom’s voice is arguably, according to her fans and non-fans alike, one of the most unique voices in K-Pop. Her true tone is clearly heard in her earlier performances and lacks the true lightness of a light lyric soprano. Due to how underdeveloped her voice is in general, her true voice lacks a clear perception of voice type, but either way it possesses an extra weight and more chestiness than most other K-Pop female vocalists, however leaning perhaps towards still more of a light lyric soprano regardless. Bom’s voice is very unique however due to its huskiness and weightier quality which allow for her voice to be easily recognizable in any song she sings.

Even with her uniqueness of tone, Bom’s overall vocal technique is actually quite underdeveloped. Her lower range is very unsupported and breathy. It lacks control, pitch and support. Most of the time her lower range tends to be very quiet and off pitch, as it occurs constantly in many live performances of Don’t Cry and You & I. Her voice clearly loses tone and support whenever she goes below Bb3, as heard with her Eb3s from All I Want for Christmas Is You and Stand Up For Love and D3 from If I Ain’t Got You, which are very quiet whispers.

Her mixed register is also an underdeveloped register. Although she’s able to produce notes in centered pitch from C4 to G#4, many times she still lacks control in pitch and in stability due to her lack of correct breathing technique and support. Her notes in between G#4 and C4 can at times have a closed throat, and anytime she sings above G#4 her throat will close, her larynx raises and she will sound very tight and strangled. Usually notes above C5 show this sign more noticeably than others. Examples would include her Eb5’s from her cover of Stand Up For Love, her D5’s in 2NE1’s recent album Crush, as well as Bb4’s and B4’s.

Her falsetto is a very underused register which she rarely showcases. Most of the time her falsetto is produced with a very unstable connection between her vocal cords, allowing too much air to go through causing the pitch and production of tone to be very unclear. She has at times been able to produce slightly fuller falsetto notes up to E5, but mostly and more recently her falsetto shows a clear drop in volume from her mixed register when she switches and often sounds like switching is a challenge for her. Examples include All I Want For Christmas Is You, 2NE1’s 너 아니면 안돼 and Take The World On.

Bom’s worst vocal problem is her lack of ability to correctly and smoothly connect her sung lines. Most of the time her singing is chopped up and disconnected, not in tone production but in general lines. The act of singing by separating notes is called staccato and the act of smoothly singing through lines is called legato. Bom’s singing is neither, as it isn’t exactly bouncy like staccato and completely not connected as legato should be, which is one of the most basic things when it comes to singing in general. Another one of her problems is her lack of ability to place her voice anywhere but her nose. Throughout the years Bom has been singing in such a way that her mouth barely opens and her sound mostly projects through her nose rather than her mask (sinus cavities/cheekbones) or head.

One of the most saddening things about Bom’s singing was that, back when she was a trainee under YG, she had capable breath support and used to be able to connect her lines and support her range up until C5 at times with a somewhat relaxed throat. Throughout the years her technique has never been fixed and so her bad habits got the best out of her and caused her skill to regress and her voice to become limited in range, projection and ability. Musically Bom isn’t able to sing many different styles of music effectively nor play correctly with dynamics to create a full delivery of her songs.

Although she has issues with her lymph nodes, they’re not the cause for her to deterioration in vocal ability. Lymph nodes may get swollen and cause an uncomfortable feeling when singing and pain, but it does not affect one’s breathing technique or throat relaxation. In actuality, we all have lymph nodes around our pelvis, our neck and in other places and they get swollen when we have bacterial infections. Lymph nodes are NOT the same as vocal nodules, which are basically scars/masses of tissue that grow on the vocal cords, and they’re not in anyway located in one’s vocal cords. Therefore they have no real connection with singing technique or ability whatsoever. Bom’s deterioration is directly linked to her not developing the correct muscle memory when training her singing skill and technique throughout the years and letting it become a habit she now can’t run away from anymore. If Bom is to continue singing, for the future and for a long lasting singing career, readjusting her vocal technique would be one of the first steps to take. It is quite unfortunate that she was not able to receive the proper vocal training she needed, but she still has the potential to improve her singing if given the proper instruction.

Musicianship

Bom lacks any real ability to change songs without going off pitch and losing control of her voice. Due to her lack of support, she’s incapable of musically finding alternate melodies to sing through difficult songs and will often strain her voice and get pitchy in performances.

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353 thoughts on “Park Bom’s Vocal Analysis [Newly Updated]”

Can you briefly do a quick mini analysis on Mariah Carey lol
I know it’s random but I’m curious about her singing level in your perspective.. Oh please don’t focus much about her current vocals, Just judge her OVERALL throughout her career.

Yes, she does. She has very damaging, pushed, throaty technique. High larynx, overly uneven chest-dominant mixed voice, off-key runs, throaty falsetto often used as if it were a whistle….a weak lower range…she has had good moments up to C#5 and down to perhaps G3 or lower? However she’s HIGHLY inconsistent and has regressed over the years.

Because Christina Aguilera is a blonde half white woman with a fake big voice who can sing a lot of melismas and has a lot of range. (As people call it, taking them to church.) Her “big voice” is actually produced with a lowered larynx and a very chesty mixed voice, which is very damaging to the voice and is not true to Christina’s natural vocal tone. It’s a very common mistake for the general public to associate loud + high with good.

thelifeentity well I believe it’s because the jaw is no where near the throat and even though some people create jaw tension while singing, the jaw doesn’t play a part in producing sounds (correct me if I’m wrong), the nose is another story though…

Bom has gotten at least 2 nose jobs, facial reshaping, double eyelids and breast implants. Which is too much for anyone! The damage of rhinoplasty effecting the way you sing is unlikely but has happened. If you get 2, like Bom (you can see her nose significantly change at debut the changed somewhere in the middle of her carrer) then it’s a higher chance. Facial reshaping can probably add tension in the jaw. I’m not a doctor but I’ve been wanting some surgery when I’m older so Ive been doing research 🙂

I’m sorry, but this has nothing to do with vocals. Please refrain from posting these kind of comments on our blog. Park Bom’s vocal condition is not a product of her surgeries. You are making accusations without having evidence to back it up. You, yourself, stated that you are not a doctor. And it also seems like you are judging her with stating “which is too much for anymore” do not judge her personal decisions.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that Bom’s technique is even below Hyoyeon’s and Yoona. Would you say that’s somewhat accurate or a bit of an exaggeration? Also out of everyone in GG, where would she stand in terms of vocal technique? I love her voice but I’ve only heard studio. To hear how “bad” it is live is just…wow.

It’s partially accurate and partially an exaggeration, instead of “below” I’d say they’re similar. They’re about the same, at leas they have better legato but terrible throat shape and placement so, it’s not a big difference. She’s below every SNSD vocal line member, so below Sunny, Taeyeon, Tiffany, Jessica and Seohyun. I don’t pay attention to Hyoyeon, Yoona, Yuri and Sooyoung enough to say much more, since they’re not vocalists I don’t focus on them.

My comment has nothing to do with bom but I’m just curious.
Who do you think has the best vibrato out of all the Kpop Girlgroups.
And what do you think of SNSD’s Sunnys vocals ? I think she is really underrated.
And it would be nice if you could give a review on Tahiti’s Jerry. She is the new main vocal and has so much talent. You should check her out 😉

Yes please check out the future projects for suggestions, Sunny will be analyzed by the end of this promotion cycle and I have no idea about the vibrato to be honest. Never tried to think on who has the best one or not.

wow i’m quite surprised with her ranking here. ‘coz usually, professionals (in Korea) say that she’s one of the best vocalist among kpop groups. It’s usually a battle between her and taeyon on rankings. But I guess in terms of natural tone, yes, Bom has a unique and special tone but I guess it’s her technique that made her a weak vocalist. I can’t really agree nor disagree with what you wrote ‘coz i’m not a follower of 2ne1’s music so I don’t think I can really judge her well (and I’m also not a pro hahaha). It’s just really surprising for me how your review is opposite to what most people say and on what I’ve read mostly so far.

Well most of these professionals are generally music critics or PD’s, I’ve never really seen a ranking from actual vocal coaches and even then most of the time all they talk about is tone and emotion, it’s never really technical at all, sadly. That kind of subjective ranking can lead to various misunderstandings amongst fans and the general public. If you do pay attention to those, that is, you’ll notice it’s never really vocal coaches and never really about technique.

I’d rather not rank vocalists who aren’t leads or mains. I don’t know them well enough to tell you who’s less weak than who but Bom should be at the top above Dara……..Maybe. Yknow what, I really don’t know.

Please, don’t give another commenter attitude and don’t be rude because I repeat what he said. It was better, support was present at that point, she was producing a much better legato and singing much better overall. So like he said, it was in the analysis and in the video analysis.

It really doesn’t. Lymph nodes are there for every single human being and even when they’re swollen, breathing isn’t hard. It may feel uncomfortable but it doesn’t affect breathing. It’s in the neck, not the chest and you shouldn’t breathe into your chest either way so it shouldn’t be a problem regardless.

Really,because I’m actually study about medical stuff.
The book I’m reading about not common diseases , it is harder to breath because it can come in the neck and chest area, and people who I have asked who has been diagnosed with Lymph disease has a hard time breath, and their breathing is not study.

I don’t think Lymph Nodes Disease is for every single human being. Everyone has Lymph nodes when they are swollen. But, there is actually a disease, it’s called Lymphatic Diseases and that is what Bom has.

It is a big problem in breathing, I don’t know if her are that bad and it can prevent that.

But, I need to ask my professor more about it, just in case I am wrong.

Lymph nodes is not a disease though, she doesn’t have lymph disease, her lymph nodes just get really swollen. Whenever you get a cold or the flu, or a sore throat, your lymph nodes get swollen. Here’s the link on the subject of swollen lymph nodes. Is there a reliable source that states that Bom truly has the lymphatic disease? Cause people throw around “lymph nodes” for Bom like she has vocal nodules.https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003097.htm

Actually, I’m not really sure on what she has, some websites say she has lymphatic disease or Lymph Nodes Disease, they are kind of the same thing. But, she has Lymph Nodes Disease, that’s why she gets surgery because her face gets swollen up.

The website you gave, my professor said never to use websites like that, (I still don’t listen to him), But it’s kind of accurate.

Swollen Lymph Nodes can affect your breathing.
The tonsils are lymphatic tissue in the throat.They are also lymph nodes around the trachea than can caress the airways within the chest causing shortness of breath. That’s what I read in my book of rare diseases.

I don’t honestly believe she’s a drug addict because she was taking medicines that are illegal in Korea but legal in the U.S. Also I don’t think even if she were a drug addict, that THAT is what caused her to have issues with her vocal technique. It’s been a thing since she debuted, her technique not being good.

Neither of them are vocalists so I’ll be brief. CL is just pushing a LOT of chest into her mix, she may be a mezzo but that doesn’t excuse the amount of throat tension and the amount of forcefulness present in her mix around G#4 throughout the verse. It all sounds very much like it’s in her throat. She’s a rapper, not a vocalist so I don’t judge her too hard. Dara is basically the same as Junghwa, many sub-vocalists sing the same way as they do. Too airy, no support, nasal and flat throughout.

I am aware that she’s labelled as both a lead vocalist and main rapper in 2NE1 but her main instrument is rapping, not her singing and I don’t believe it’s fair to analyze her on her singing for a 4 membered group with 3 weak vocalists.

I love Park Bom’s voice, but I must agree with you that she sings with very limited skills. Her singing always sounds so unrefined(?). I used to wonder if she lip-sync coz her mouth never moves much. Thank you for this analysis. =] And also, I want to ask, for someone unprofessional like me, how can I know if I have place my voice in the correct position for different registers? Sorry for my poor English ><

If you put your hand on your chest, you can sing in your chest voice and you’ll feel vibrations. If you put your hand on your mouth as you sing, you can feel mask placement..also cheekbones, behind your eyes or close to your nose but not on your nose. As for head placement, in your forehead mostly.

This isn’t related to the topic but can you give me a review about ikon’s Junhoe or Jinhwan, and winner’s Seungyoon or Taehyun. I know that most yg artist that you review have a bad reaction. Sorry for my English.

Well that’s not because they belong to YG, we have nothing against YG. The issue is that YG doesn’t take care of their vocalists. Taehyun sings with somewhat underdeveloped support and almost always through his nose. He is a tenor with issues around F4/F#4, which is not very good. I am not familiar with Jinhwan at all. Junhoe and Seungyoon are both baritones, Seungyoon supports well and at times uses head voice but he tends to push his voice out with his throat above Eb4 or so? Whereas Junhoe is very throaty he strains even as early as C4, which is very low for a baritone to be so tense. None of them are exceptional vocalists but Seungyoon is surely the strongest I’ve heard so far.

Ok, so I understand that her poor vocal habits have contributed to her regression. But were these habits she had in the past when her technique was better? And thus caused her to be unable to maintain her old technique and skill? Or were they habits she picked up along the way?

The reason I ask is because I don’t understand why other vocalists with bad habits aren’t also seeing such a decline. I know Hyorin as of late is having issues with regression. But how are other vocalists who aren’t actively improving, especially those rated average or below, able to maintain their skill and technique in spite of poor vocal habits? Why aren’t those habits getting the better of them, resulting in regression?

There is such a limited amount of material available for her when her technique was better but I mean she used to strain above C5 back then as well as now, so that only got worse overtime. I believe she picked up worse habits along the way. Bom is older, that’s why. Most idols who are younger have less issues with regression because their instruments are younger, therefore stronger and more resistant to strain but in due time, some regression may be audible depending on the amount of abuse they cause to their instruments.

Has she ever supported decently? And also on a general note, if a vocalist had amazing musicianship (like those > Competent) but an Average vocal technique, would the musicianship bump it up in any way? It’s probably really unlikely but I’m just hypothesising. (If it’s really silly then please don’t waste your time answering it) Thank you!

She wasn’t bad at supporting when she was younger actually. Mhmm it depends just how average their level of technique is because we don’t favor style over technique and some vocalists are pure style and no technique and that would still make them weak. Having style doesn’t really make your technique less faulty.

I was wondering what exactly causes a person to sing off pitch? Some vocalists do occasionally (like Bom). But there are people who just naturally seem unable to sing the right notes…or hear themselves sing off pitch at all.

It’s a muscle memory thing. Most of my beginning students have the habit of sliding when they sing so instead of singing right at the center of pitch, they slide around notes which makes them sound pitchy and off. When vocalists occasionally sing off pitch it’s a matter of control, the brain sends a message to the vocal cords but maybe due to lack of proper breath control, they’re unable to manage the air fast enough against the stretch of the vocal cords, so they don’t respond quickly enough and you end up off key. Many times it just has to do with the lack of breath control or improper muscle memory development.

Thank you so much for your explanation! I’m still confused over the hearing part though. There are cases (usually the weird/funny American Idol auditions) where people seemingly can’t hear themselves being completely off pitch, how is that possible?

Reblogged this on A.SharlJewel and commented:
Can yo do a voical analysis of Kang Sung Hoon from Sechskies, please ? He just comback in 2016 after 16 years disband. maybe it’s break your rule but I’m curious a bout his singing level. You can joy this link to find some information of his voice https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvfGDi1diqzyexEn2v18GwA , thank you so much
please do it

Someone asked about him recently. He might be analyzed eventually, but please look at our future analyses page when making requests. I’ll leave you with my answer to their question.

“Yknow we have been asked about Bada, Shinhwa, Kangta and Kim Taewoo but nobody really asked us about Sechskies before. Tbh I don’t really have their songs so I’ve never heard their main vocalist singing.

He sings like a lot like Kim Jongkook, that nasal high larynx approach. Very bright and thin sound, kind of mostly closed inside his throat. Very weak support. He sounds like idols who debuted in the 90’s and didn’t really get any formal training…ever. His lower range isn’t bad, he has tone and he sounds comfortable and relaxed up to like C4 and D4, in the Couple video. 2:18 like that part is very relaxed for him. He’s fine from F3 ~ D4, with somewhat shallow support. Nasal throughout though. 2:40 there’s a bit of tension on the sustained D4’s, it’s just shallow and weak in support. 2:53 high larynx on the F4. I don’t hear much that’s different in the other videos. 1:14 high larynx G4’s and F#4’s in the chorus of the second song..yeah he seems like a weak tenor but I mean he has adequate pitch. He just doesn’t have any kind of true engagement of support when he sings. So his voice sounds kind of small and flat throughout.”

Jisoo has absolutely no support in her singing, she sings almost exclusively from her throat and places her sound in her nose. She uses too much chest voice in her mix, she doesn’t know how to place her sound high enough. So she can become quite pitchy and flat when singing above G#4, which for a soprano is quite low.

Now Rosé has better technique than Jisoo, she can place her sound higher but her diction is limited because she barely drops her jaw. So her sound is often tight and nasal. Her throat is often closed and she’s unable to support her voice properly. She strains B4’s, but can support A4’s.

As for Jisoo, she’s safely weak. Jennie may have slightly better technique than Jisoo but none of them stand out amongst themselves, neither does Lisa. Rosé seems to be weak or weak to average. This all could change if more material is presented where they use better technique but based on their acoustic performances, their solo singing, etc., it seems to be that way for now.

Well first of all 2NE1 and Big Bang are more performance oriented, not so much choreography. So they get to use the stage and be more comfortable so they can preserve their stamina for singing. Second of all they rarely sing challenging songs, since most of their songs are narrow in range and don’t go very high. Third of all there’s a lot of rapping in their songs too so the vocalists get to save their voices. So with that in mind, there’s not much of a challenge for singing out of breath but if you listen to them solo, like Taeyang, oftentimes he does sound out of breath when he does sing. Again they sing in very narrow ranges. Also being clear or loud or strong .. you can be shouty and match those qualities…but your perception of better is really arguable. If you’re comparing their weekend show performances, that’s not very productive at all. Now if you’re thinking of their solos vs other artists solos, I think every vocalist on the above average rating or higher sounds better than YG artists singing solo on TV shows such as King of Mask Singer, Immortal Song 2 or Duet Song Festival. I don’t know if you’re familiar with these shows nor if you watch all the idols we have analyzed singing solo on those, cause if you haven’t and you’re basing your observations off of live concerts or weekend shows with backing tracks and choreography then that’s not very fair.

I’m curious why YG didn’t help her correct her bad habits? I’ve never been a fan, but considering how 2ne1 was once such a big deal, i would think that YG would take measures to increase all aspects that would contribute to the longevity of the group? Including maintaining their voice? That said, based on a lot of the analyses I’ve read so far, why does it feel like this doesn’t seem to be a thing — that is, continued vocal training and improvement as required by the company? I love mamamoo, but based on the analyses I’ve read here, they haven’t done anything to fix their own bad habits since they’ve debuted, despite being a vocal-focused group. I wish that they would.

is a factor, to some degree, a means to retain style? Like, if they improve their vocal technique, would there be a problem of losing their “style” of singing? Does this tradeoff exist, or any other tradeoff that I’m clueless about?

Well actually companies don’t think that artists need training if they’re successful. They don’t want to waste money and often tell artists to just practice on their own. That’s the same for many companies. YG also thinks if you learn technique, you’ll lose your “style” and your “uniqueness” which is far from being true.

Perhaps Park Bom’s analysis wouldn’t be the most convenient page to ask about this. It’s not the first time this question has been asked and certainly not the last. With support and resonance from perhaps Eb3 ~ C#5/D5 or D5/Eb5, she’s most certainly a good to great mezzo soprano, or just good. Not entirely sure but definitely somewhere up there with her technique.

Do you think Bom or any weak vocalist for that matter know that they are weak?
Because if I was a weak kpop vocalist I would want to change that and try to sing better.
Sorry if this question was out of place but I’m just curios 😊 Thanks for everything you do!

I think sub vocalists are aware. I think some of them, very few, are aware. For an example I think that Jimin would be aware, perhaps Bom, perhaps Kara’s vocalists. I think most of them sing high and loud, so they think they’re doing it right cause the instructors didn’t teach them any better.

I can’t answer this question because many companies neglect vocal training for certain individuals. Some vocalists seek training elsewhere, and even the individual vocalist is responsible for practicing on their own the correct way, so even if the instructor is good, if the vocalist doesn’t practice correctly, just looking at the vocalists and using that as a way to tell what companies have good vocal instructors isn’t reliable. I know some SM instructors like Jang Jinyoung are knowledgeable.

Hi. I was just wondering. 2ne1 is well known for their very lively performance and charisma on stage. Not only do they sing but they dance onstage as well every night on tour + they also do dance practice everyday for hours. Do you think that’s also a factor on why Bom’s technique got altered or changed throughout her singing career from her debut and was never develop?

So I showed this site to my friend and she got a little tipsy and emotional and sent this analysis to Scotty Kim, Bom’s new boss 😂 He replied with three prayer emojis. Let’s hope for improvement in her technique 😁 I don’t know how to add the screenshot of her message here, if someone knows how please help 😆

Hello dear! Just a quick correction to make sure there are no misunderstandings. Improvements have to do with technique, not a voice being better or not. And I’m afraid I heard nothing new, so no improvement but also no decline.

I love this good news. I’m a huge BTS Fan. I am a good ARMY Lover since 9 years.
my friends & me follow all Korea Melody, and BTS and TWICE are
typically one of the top kpop team that I love the most of the time.